Four Graduates Tour Asia with Pitbull [Photo]

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Rapper/producer Pitbull has just wrapped an extensive tour of Asia, which took the artist through Indonesia, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. Part of the road crew for this trip included a group of four Full Sail graduates from live event company Impulse Creative Group.

Justin Geiger (Music Business, 2008) and Nate Selvidio (Show Production, 2009) are the cofounders of Impulse Creative, and were joined by Rafael Gantus (Recording Arts, 1998) and Victor Martinez (Recording Arts, 2010) as backline technicians. Justin formed a relationship with Pitbull in early 2012 as production designer, with Nate joining months later as video director, and have since traveled the U.S. and beyond helping to design and produce his live experience.

Impulse is based a short ride from Full Sail campus, and we recently caught up with theses grads for a quick tour recap.

Full Sail: You’ve been working with Pitbull for over a year now, can you describe what your relationship is like?

Justin Geiger: Being on tour with him is great, it’s not your typical artist relationship. For a lot of bigger tours you won’t always have the kind of contact and interaction we do, but he pushes for us to create content for the show and be involved in all his appearances. He’s a really fun guy to be around.

Nate Selivdio (far left), Pitbull (center), Justin Geiger (far right)

FS: Consistency is a major factor in keeping a tour running smoothly. What is it like taking a show like this overseas where you’re dealing with so many different logistical concerns?

Nate Selvidio: It’s definitely a lot harder. First you have the communication barrier, just trying to explain things you need to people, then they’re using different gear every day. So it just becomes about being prepared, and being able to adapt your show to something else than you’re used to. It comes with experience.

FS: Was there a highlight of this particular run of shows?

JG: Japan was definitely the highlight for me, the last two shows in Tokyo were insane. We did back to back nights, and he’s growing in that market, so it was one of the craziest crowds we’ve ever seen.

NS: They might not have spoken any English, but they knew every word to every song.